Bernini's square and the most famous roast pork in Italy
Ariccia, one of the Castelli Romani, is reached by a spectacular bridge over a deep wooded valley, built in the nineteenth century by Pope Pius IX. At the end of it lies Piazza di Corte, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for the Chigi family, with the round church of Santa Maria dell'Assunzione facing the Palazzo Chigi, whose baroque rooms and park were used as a set for Visconti's film The Leopard.
But Ariccia is famous above all for its porchetta, a whole pig deboned, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary and wild fennel, and slowly roasted in wood ovens until the skin becomes crisp. It is a protected IGP product. In the fraschette of the town, you sit at long wooden tables and eat porchetta with bread, salami, cheeses and local wine.
Tip: in early September the Sagra della Porchetta fills the town with stalls; the Palazzo Chigi museum is also worth a visit for its baroque furniture.
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